Visiting the Station

General policies

The Field Station is open for use by researchers and classes. Our facilities may be used by other groups with a research, environmental education, conservation or natural history focus as space permits. All uses of the Field Station must be arranged in advance by submitting one of the forms below. The Field Station properties are not open for hunting or for hiking. Members of the general public wishing to visit the Station are invited to attend one of our guided walks (see our events page) or to visit the Station with a group event. For more information about our properties, facilities, or policies please contact us by phone or email (see Contact Us). Safety guidelines for field work in the Cedarburg Bog can be found here.

Facilities

Research and Teaching

The Field Station has an office/classroom building with meeting rooms, teaching lab, and computer lab, plus a research lab building with an herbarium containing most of the plants found in the area. A well-equipped shop is located in the service building.

The Station maintains a complete weather station and meteorological data and equipment are available. The weather station includes a digital data logger and sensors which record rainfall, air and soil temperatures, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. The entire Field Station area is marked with a permanent and easily located grid system which was accurately GPS-located in 2005. Equipment for trapping and marking animals and an animal room and animal holding facilities are available. A small greenhouse and gardens are maintained for experimental work, and farm and cultivating machinery are available. We maintain a set of 14 aquatic mesocosms (buried 200 gallon cattle tanks) for controlled experimental research on aquatic plants and animals. For soil and hydrologic studies, there is a permanent lysimeter pit in the beech-maple woods, and a system of peizometers running from the upland into the bog. There are several fenced deer exclusion plots in various plant communities and habitats.

The Station maintains a boardwalk to the center of the Cedarburg Bog.

All of these facilities lie within the natural area, and security is ensured by a chain link fence and the presence of Station staff.

Housing

The old farm house at the Station can accommodate about 15 visiting investigators and students. The Station does not serve meals, but does provide kitchen space where visitors can store food and prepare meals. Overnight guests must bring their own pillows, linens, blankets and towels, and are asked to leave the facility clean when they leave.

For researchers

All researchers intending to work at the Field Station must submit the "Request for Permission to Carry Out a Research Project" form (Word, pdf 124kb). Please allow up to 4 weeks for review.

All users of the Field Station are required to submit an annual abstract summarizing their use and activities. These are used to compile and publish the Field Station Annual Report.

Any substantial changes to project protocols or scope must be approved by the Field Station Committee.

All equipment, installations, and markers placed in the field must be removed by the investigator at the end of the project unless the Field Station Committee specifically requests that permanent markers remain to record the location of a study that may be useful in the future.

For any research that involves use of vertebrates, the Field Station requires a copy of an approved Vertebrate Animal Care and Use Protocol for our files.

The Field Station labs and our fume-hood facility are not intended for permanent storage of chemicals. If you bring chemicals to the Field Station for your project, you must provide us with a complete list of the chemicals that will be stored and used at the Station for the duration of your project, and you must remove all chemicals from the Field Station facilities when your project ends.

For classes

Instructors wishing to bring their classes to the Field Station should submit the "Request for Class Use" form (Word , pdf 7kb).

Any instruction that involves experimentation or manipulations requires prior approval (allow up to 4 weeks for review).

Visiting student groups are required to have a faculty advisor when using Field Station facilities.

For other groups

Other groups with a research, environmental education, or conservation focus may request use of Field Station facilities by submitting the "Request for Event Use" form (Word, pdf 7kb).